Fee-for-service means different things to different
people. Based on our research to date,
(Survey Results and
Case Studies)the most common
applications/operational definitions of fee-for-service are
(in order)

Charging fees to employers for services

Charging fees to other organizations for consulting
services

Charging fees to third-party organizations for job
seeker type services to their customer-base

Charging fees to job seekers for services

Generating revenue from non-traditional or non-public
sources

Providing fee-based services to employers is by far the
most common practice thus far. [see below for specific
descriptions of types of services being charged for a fee]

In developing a fee-for-service strategy you need to think
about what definition/application you will use.
In deciding on your definition some questions to ask
yourself are:

Why am I interested in fee-for-service? What is my
motivation? What results can I expect?

How does fee-for-service fit within my organization's
mission?

What services do we currently offer that are in
demand?

What are the
services that may be offered
for a fee?

Based on your definition, you will need to decide what
services you might provide for a fee and to which
customers -- in other words, what are your products? Based on
our survey results, the most common types of services being
provided for a fee are, in order:

Other unique responses included Internet training and
"Work-Keys assessments."

FEE-BASED SERVICES CURRENTLY BEING PROVIDED TO OTHER
ORGANIZATIONS were primarily either management consulting
(similar to that offered to an employer) OR services such as
vocational/occupational testing, career
planning/counseling and computer literacy training (as is
provided to job seekers but is provided to a third-party's
customer group for a fee.)

Some other unique responses included MIS services and
production of newsletters and brochures.

When developing your own possible products / services,
some thoughts on where to begin are to:

start with what you already know how to do and build
from there

look at what requires little or no start-up costs

analyze your local market - see what else is being
offered at no cost and for a fee - consider if the demand
is sufficient

There are different kinds of "obstacles" that you may
face when developing and implementing a
fee-for-service program. Some are EXTERNAL and some are
INTERNAL:

POSSIBLE EXTERNAL FACTORS:

state laws, regulations, or policies prohibit
fee-charging or make it difficult

federal laws, regulations, or policies prohibit
fee-charging or make it difficult

Claims of unfair competition from for-profit and
non-profit organizations that provide similar services

there is a lack of information about permitted
activities

there is concern that licensing issues exist with
some of the types of services we are considering (e.g.,
day care provision, temporary staffing services)

POSSIBLE INTERNAL OBSTACLES:

staff and/or organizational resistance to the idea of
charging fees

there is expected to be too great a resistance by job
seekers and/or employers to pay fees for what they now
believe they have been receiving already at no cost

the organization does not have adequate experience
with business strategies

And some issues are both external AND internal, such as:

the governing or oversight board is concerned about
getting into fee-for-service activities

In our research, we have found that organizations that
have been providing fee-for-service for some time have
OVERCOME the external issues once they understood that it
was legal and possible - adopting a "can do / just do it"
mentality - and have focused more attention on resolving the
internal issues. They suggest that being as inclusive as
possible in planning your fee-for-service activities so that
staff, board members, and the community at-large feel
comfortable with the plans, helped to overcome most of the
internal obstacles as well. In addition, time spent on staff
development was seen as critical: many organizations saw
staff inexperience with operating in a "business mentality"
mode as a big hurdle.

Those that haven't begun fee-for-service were much more
concerned about all the obstacles, but the external ones
most of all, and sometimes put up their own roadblocks in
their planning efforts. We also found that the "perceived"
barriers did not always coincide with reality.... for
instance, fear of complaints of unfair competition and that
customers won't be willing to pay fees (particularly
employers) were basically unfounded. Those that have been
doing fee-for-service state that for-profit firms are used
to competition and as long you are clear that public dollars
aren't subsidizing the program, then there was no real basis
for complaints. Handling perceived customer reluctance was
managed by how they marketed the services and trained the
staff, to ensure that the fee-based services are DIFFERENT
than those that are already offered free.